Dinner with guest speaker Rt Hon Owen Paterson MP

We are fortunate to have the Rt. Hon. Owen Paterson MP as our guest speaker. Owen entered the House of Commons in 1997, and has served in a number of Shadow and Ministerial roles. Most recently, he served as the Secretary of State for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs. He also founded the UK 2020, an independent think-tank, which looks at how we can address the challenges and opportunities facing the UK in the next decade. Owen is a long-standing Parliamentarian with a reputation for speaking his mind on the issues of the day.

Owen and his wife Rose's love of horses led them to compete in the gruelling Mongol Derby in 2011. Dropped in the middle of the Mongolian Steppe, near Ulan Bator, they had 10 days in which to travel 1,000 kilometres: equipped with only a semi-wild pony, GPS, and a small bag of equipment. In addition to giving us a political overview, we hope that he will tell us a little about his experiences whilst competing in the race where he raised over £65,000 for charity.